I woke very early indeed this morning to see Mum & Dad preparing for setting off again,
and this time we left the earliest ever — 0423 hrs, just as the first glimmer of light was
appearing in the sky, and Dad calculated that we should arrive
in Calais by 1230 hrs. We belted on, with
hardly a car on the road - they were all on the side, sleeping, and we managed to do about
100 kph. We had breakfast at a place called Estaples [?], and got a tank of petrol
there as well. Then we belted on to Paris,
and a a bit of trouble finding our way out again. However, it did not take too long, and
before long we were on our way again, and I went to sleep, and woke up a little later to be
handed the map by Dad (I was in the back seat), and read it for the rest of the way.

There were a large number of GB cars on the road, and
between Bologne[sic] and Calais
we counted exactly 250. In Calais itself, we took quite some time to find an hotel, and
even then it was not much good. However, it was a place to put our weary bodies, and after
lunch I rested for about 4 hours, and was woken to be scrubbed by Mum before eating - how
degrading.

After makan I went for a walk with Dad to try to find the Gare Maritime, and had quite an
interesting conversation with him about architecture, and came back without finding it.

Dad woke me up several times this morning, each time to say different things, and each time
of course I went back to sleep again. Then in came Mum and told me that the were going out
to see about the ferrey [sic], and to get up and have my breakfast when I felt like
it, as she would not be back for some time.

I was still asleep when she came back to say that the ferry was already full for today, but
we were lucky enough to get the early morning one tomorrow, so the only difference would be
on which side of the channel we slept tonight. She had also discovered a rather better
hotel than the one we were at tonight, and so we paid our bill, which came to the astounding
sum of 129.50 NF. Then we packed up, posted some letters, and had breakfast, after which we
went to the hotel. Then we went out for lunch again, and came back, I to do little of
interest, so worked out a circuit for the new power supply for the PCR, complete with the necessary voltage changing plugs and tag board for it. Of
course the problem now remains what to do with the empty valve socket. However, I can
probably put it to good use, and put some transistors in as well.

Then Dad admitted that, for the first time in 10 years, he was at a loose end, and so we
went around the town, creating a remarkably good impression of being
the great train
robbers.

Then, of course, Mum wanted to do some window shopping, and Dad and I went round town, and
ended up somehow or another in the rail yards.

Just as the first light of dawn arose, Dad woke me to tell me to get dressed, and pack up,
as we were shortly going to leave. I did so, but nevertheless, it was still not by any
means our shortest getaway. However, by 0505 we were at the Gare Maritime, and waiting in
the queue, and commenting on the other holidaymakers, including a couple who were having a
scene about whether the window should be up or down. However, we were soon on board the
ferrey [sic], and having breakfast, which was quite good. Then up on deck, and
before long were at Dover, and waiting for
the customs. Soon we were on our way along the M2, which has only just been finished, and
then into London, where, after a long
search and argument, we
found Piccadilly and the Mapleton
Hotel, where 2 rooms had been reserved for us, as ordered. The one I am in is the same as
the one that Uncle Bob and I were in this time last year.

After lunch, I decided that, as we were so close to Lisle st, I would go round and have a
look to see how it was going, and accordingly extracted £2 from Dad. When I got into
G.W.Smiths, it was full to the brim with lunch hour rush types, but before long all had
gone, and I had a chance to look around. The fellow at Smiths got a little annoyed because
I did not buy anything, so, just to please him, I bought some Savbit and some test leads,
which proved to be very useful when I connected to the scope to the PCR later. Dad was not feeling very well today, and was in bed all evening.

I was woken up this morning by Mum on the phone to say that the maid would soon be coming in
with the breakfast, and in due course this happened. After that, she rang again to say that
we were to get dressed and go down to her room, which we did, and then I went down to pay
for the car until 1700 hrs, and to get the book case. When I brought it back, I went out
again to look for a bookshop that Mum said was in Regent St., but after looking all over the
place, I finally ended up in Foyles, where I
got “Teach Yourself Russian”, which is very interesting.

Then we went to the lounge with Dad, who was still not feeling too bright, and I was handed
the cost of the signal generator
and Wobbulator, which came to £7,
which made Dad fele no better.

After lunch, Mum wanted to go shopping, and I had to go with her despite the fact that all I
needed was a pair of jeans, which she did not try on me anyway. After
that, Bev wanted to go to an hour show, but as I wanted
to get some components for a noise limiter, and by this time it was rush hour, I went to
Smiths instead, and bought some stuff. It was not until I got back until I realised that I
had forgotten a few things, and had to go back to get them.

Soon, however, with Dads, help, I commenced on the limiter chassis, which promised to well,
and mounted it on top of the filter choke. However, when we tried it out, it did not go too
well.

Bed and breakfast tarriffs [sic] annoy me, as it means that Mum always makes us take
advantage of it, with the result that I never get a really good sleep in. However, after
breakfast this morning Mum went out to have her hair done, and insisted that we did not go
out until she came back, and we would make a rendezvous for lunch at 1230 hrs. I promptly
set to work on the noise limiter again, and after a bit of thought*

decided that I had wired the diodes the wrong way around. I promptly rectified this, and
turned on, but it seemed that the diodes had had it, and I then installed an on-off switch,
which involved a bit of filing, and by the time I had finished, Mum was back, and I went out
and bought a couple of miniature thermionic diodes, type R78, for 6d apiece, but could not
install them until after lunch, which took me until 1400 hrs, after
which Bev wanted to go to an hour show, and I, out of the
kindness of my heart, accompanied her, and quite enjoyed myself.

When I get back I got going again, but before long was back at Smiths again, and the fellow
there tried to sell me a couple of 100 V silicon diodes, but instead I decided that now
would be as good a time as any to buy some silicon power rectifiers, and bought a couple of
OA210 at 3/6 apiece (400 VAC, 500 mA), and after going for a walk with Dad, installed them
with his help, which took us some time, but in the end we got it going, and with it the ANL.
However, it soon developed some fault, doing the Power Xformer no good.

For some reason or another Bev got up very early this
morning, and left the door to so that breakfast came in while I was still asleep. Then, to
add insult to injury, Bev wanted to know why I had not
called her.

Soon, however, I had to get up, as I could no longer sleep, and I got going on the power
supply, and tested out the diodes on the oscilloscope. I decided in the end that one of
them had had it, and decided to take it back, stopping on the way at the public library to
get some information on transistorised reactance modulators, and did get some interesting
information, though it was not exactly what I wanted.

Then I went over to Smiths, and the fellow referred me to the other shop, which confirmed my
suspicions that it was indeed
400 PIV. However, he was
fairly pleasant about it, and gave me another, and I also bought a couple of BY100's (800
PIV, 500 mA, and half the size), together with a couple of equalizing resistors, and started
installing them, but soon Dad came back, and I started talking to him, and he gave me the
go-ahead for building a MAT P.O.Oscillator complete with Z, etc.

I no longer have any idea what this means. The Z is written in a stylized fashion.

After they had gone out for lunch, I tried out the new rectifiers, and this time there were
no fireworks. The things do not even get warm. It is impossible to tell if they have been
on. Got the new P. W. out today, but not much of interest in it. Went to flicks
with Bev.

Once more I was fast asleep when the breakfast came in, but quickly woke up, and moved the
bedside table back to between us, and put the breakfast on top of it. Then, after eating
for a while came in Dad to ask me if I wanted to come with him to pick up the car from the
garages. I did, but first we had to go to the bank to see how our money was going. Dad had
asked for £300 from the australian Bank, but he had only got £239··0··11d, and he was
threatening to do all sort of nasty things to them for not accommodating him when I suddenly
realised that it was probably £300A. Then out to get the car, which has been pretty well
completely overhauled,

And that for a car that was 5 weeks old and had done about 8000 km.

and by the time we got back it was 1140 hrs, and as all the shops closed at 1200 hrs, and I
wanted to build a signal generator, I had to hurry. However, I needn't have worried, for
the fellow waited until after 1200 before he served me, and it was 1220 hrs before I
finished.

Then, with Dads “moral help” as he put it, I got going in earnest, after first doctoring a
12 pole 3 way switch to 4 pole 9 way, and putting all the parts for the phase shift actually
on the wafers, I got going on the main breadboard, and discovered I was 2 - 5µf condensers
short. I went over to the other branch, which closes at 1700 hrs, and bought 2 - 4µf, which
will do.

After a tea break, I went on again, but then we were going to go to an hour show, but it was
so crowded that we went for an Indian makan instead, and with Dad's help carried on
afterwards.

During breakfast this morning, I listened to a church service on the radio,
and Bev & I commented on it.

After breakfast, Dad wanted to see me, but when I went in, it was just an exhortation to get
up and finish the oscillator, which I proceeded to do, after dressing. Fairly soon,
however, he came back in again, and told me that I would have to have a bath, as we were
going to see Mrs. Treays in the afternoon. He also took in the oscillator chassis and
showed it to Mum.

I soon finished my bath, and went in and finished the oscillator, and tried it out, but it
would not oscillate, and I suspected the switch. Then I tried out the amplifier, but when I
put a 1 v p-p sine wave through, it came out as a badly spaced square, and was obviously
overloaded. however, on lower levels it amplified well up to the local Oscillator at about
3.4 Mc/s. As a result, I decided to take all the condensers off the switch, wire them onto
the breadboard and then take the switch to bits and clean it out, and then wire it all to
the breadboard, and this I was starting when Bev
suggested that we went to an hour show, to which I agreed, and after this we bought some
Wimpys at the Wimpy bar, and took them home, as it was so crowded there.

After that, I got going on the wiring of the oscillator, and got to the end of the condenser
wiring. I was also considering different filters on the PCR - the present is over 0.01% ripple.

After breakfast this morning, I went in to see Dad, but he had already begun his work for
the day, and Mum was just leaving, and left instructions not to leave the hotel. Soon, I
went back to my room and examined the residual hum on the HT line - 525 mV. I decided that
this was not good enough, and after a bit of consideration, decided to put in a capacitative
input filter. The improvement was amazing - the hum is down to 50 mV.

Fairly soon after that, Dad cam in, and told me that I would get a coat this afternoon after
lunch, and I would have to change into my suit, which I did, and went downstairs to the
dining room, had lunch, and when we had finished, went and bought a Harris Tweed hacking
jacket for £7-0-0.

After that, Dad gave me £1 to buy some odds and ends for the next year, and I got 100
“Resistors” which, apart from resistors, contained 7 condensers and 3 diodes, 100 yards of
hook up wire, and a 6V6GT for the PCR.

When Dad got back, he was rather shocked that I had spent all of the £1, but got over it
fairly soon, and I got round to making a list of all the things that I had got, and was
interested in the number of 470Ks - 9.

In the evening, Dad took us to
the Batterseaamusement park,
where we enjoyed ourselves immensely. Although we were “taken” a few times, but on several
rides enjoyed ourselves so much that we went again.

For some reason, probably best known to Dad, the breakfast came in extremely early this
morning, and as usual, I did not wake until it was quite cold. However, the maid, who
obviously thought that I would have finished it long ago, came in, and went and warmed it up
for me.

When I got up, Dad had once more gone out, this time with Mum, and I did a little reading,
and looking at scope traces, and before long Mum was back, took time enough to find out how
to get to the Monument tube station, left, and soon in came Dad, who told me to get ready for
lunch, and we went down and had it.

After this, he told me that we would be going to see “Heavens Above”
with Peter Sellers, but in the end
it turned out that he could not go. However, Mum was back by the time it was due to start,
and she took us.

Apart from a mob of rather dirty gipsy kids, and the fact that they were giving bread, etc,
away, it was wet. That is the only word for it.

When we got back, Dad sent Bev and me to have a meal at
the Wimpy, and after that we went to see the first half of “London by night”, but I found it
extremely boring except for one or two highlights.

When we got back, as Dad had ordered, I attempted to put the PCR back in its case, but the new silicon rectifiers would not let it in, so I spent
some time crowding them round the rectifier valve socket. Finally however, it went, and
worked okay.

I was woken this morning by a persistent knocking on the door, which proved to be Dad, who
insisted that I get going on packing my radio stuff, as we had to leave by 0900 hrs. Why
Mum & Dad ever bother to do that sort of schedule, I will never know. Only once have we
ever kept to it.

This time, however, Mum had to go and get an air ticket, and we had to carry on without her
aid until she got back, by which time we had got our things nearly all in the car. However,
she would not go without making her own checks on both rooms.

Our first stop was to see Mrs Treays, who was very pleased indeed to see me, and talked
about 127.635 to the dozen as the frogs seem accustomed to do.

After her, we had to go and see a firm who made stomach tablets, and at the same time we had
lunch, for it was about time.

Then, finally, we headed in the direction
of Taunton, and stopped just
before Salisbury for tea. As we were
in the neighbourhood, we decided that we must
see stonehenge, and Dad spent nearly
£1 there. However, we all felt it well worth while.

This was long before the motorways in this part of England, even, I think before the
A303 road, which now goes straight past Stonehenge. We would have taken the A30, now
marked as a byroad, which goes through Salisbury.

By this time, it was getting rather late, and we were
in Somerset, but the last few miles
seemed to take a very long time. Finally, however, we got there, and discovered that they
had not got Mums letter asking for another room. Nevertheless, it worked out all right, and
we had dinner there, which was a very badly done steak, and then I fixed my slide rule.

At about 0715 hrs this morning, I woke up, and was immediately got up, and we went down, had
breakfast, and went up again to clean our teeth, and then to the dentists, arriving hardly
late at all. I went in first, and then discovered that all I needed was to brush
up. Bev, however, was not so fortunate, and had to have
gas. Meanwhile, I went and bought a
new W.W. Valve data book, and went
back home to read it.

After a while, along came Dad, and told me that we were going to school to get my trunk, and
while we were there, we got into a conversation with Matron about which school in this
neighbourhood would be the best for Bev. She talked
about it as long as she could, and then gave us the idea that St. Audries was the best.

We then went back, did a few sundry jobs, and then packed up. after a while, we were
finally ready, and had lunch in the park, though Bev was
a little the worse for gas. After that, we headed towards St. Audries, where we met the
headmistress, Miss Havergill, who was very pleasant to all concerned, and it seems likely
that Bev will go there next year.

After that, we started to meander our way towards Netherton house, and finally got there at
dinner time. However, it developed that Mrs Baudouy would not me have the coach house, as
she no longer trusted me sufficiently. Got the 52 out of the cellars, where it
had been all holidays.

I was woken up this morning very early by Barry who had to go to school, and could not get
back to sleep, and so got up, and, in my usual manner, roused everybody else up.

After breakfast, I was feeling rather bored, as I had extremely little to do, and so walked
down to the Coombe cellars, which
Mum & Dad had already left, and so came back, and found them talking to Mrs Baudouy, so
I got my oscilloscope out of the car and started re-aligning the 52.

I had not got far before Dad came and said he wanted to go for a walk with me, during which
he had quite a lot to say, but it was better than I thought it would be. When I got back, I
finished aligning the 52, but reception was very poor. I must put in the EF39's.

It seems that people were generally unhappy with the way I spent my time in the
previous two holidays. You wouldn't have guessed it from the content of my diary. One of
the results was that my parents tried to find other ways for me to spend my school
holidays.

Raymond was interested in the oscilloscope, as I expected he would be, and found a
microphone with which we could examine voice waveforms. However, Mum & Dad came back,
and insisted that I help un-pack, and this kept me for a considerable time, although I got
my Blockflöten back, and managed to sneak up and look at them on the oscilloscope.

After that we had tea, and then Dad called me down to clean my rugger boots. I mean to say:
they don't look the same without mud.

Brian was very interested in the oscilloscope, on which I put a new mains lead. Interesting
conversation after lights

I did not wake this morning until Mrs Richards told us that it was nearly 0800 hrs, when I
got up, and quickly down to breakfast, after which, at a loose end, I went upstairs and had
a look at the PCR, and decided to put some of the new EF39's in, and after that I got round to
aligning it, but then in came the maid [footnote:Kirsten], and I out.

Not long after I got back, Dad came, and demanded that I helped with the packing procedures,
and first on the agenda was putting away the radios, but we did not know where to put them,
and did not have enough boxes to put them in, so we decided that as Mrs Baudouy was so busy,
and would not help us, that we would have to leave it until after lunch, which we were to
have in town, and ended up having fish and chips in the park.

After that, we had to do some shopping, which took us quite some time, and after that we got
back to the packing again, but did not stay at it long, and after doing it, I put a few
brown paper covers on various books, after which I listened to the radio for a while, and
tried to put the EF39's in the 52, but had little success.
Then, at 1820 hrs, went out for dinner, and had a very good meal, and after that had a talk
with Dad about a few things, and got him to write to Wodge [history teacher] about
the Times.

As I got to sleep rather late last night, I did not wake until nearly breakfast time.

After that, I got my stuff ready to go with intent to leave my radio stuff where it was, but
apparently Mr Baudouy did not like the idea of this, and threatened to throw them away if I
hadn't stored them by the time I left. I put away the 52, but could find no space for the
other stuff, and so he agreed to my leaving it there at my own risk, and Barry is going to
look after it for me. Got Mrs Baudouy to look after the olives.

After a bit more packing, and a few demonstrations of
the air suspension
system of the car, we got under way, t about 1045 hrs, and had lunch at about 1150 at a
place called “The Half-Way house” situated on
the Cornwall side
of Plymouth where we had some fun,
getting wapses [sic] drunk on cider, beer, etc., and watched them try to fly.

We then plough on, arove [sic]
at Penzance about 1400 hrs, and, after
making sure of accommodation, we went
to St. Ives, where we had a
genuine cornish cream tea, and, after a bit of the inevitable window-shopping, went down
to lands End, where the weather
was not nearly as good, and so we went back to Penzance, where we did a few odd jobs until
dinner time, when we went to the “Admiral Benbow”,
an old smugglers tavern, complete with tips written on the table mats.

When we got back, Bevs hamsters came into the limelight
by half killing themselves. Thinking about intercoms.

The tea came in as promised, at 0700 hrs this morning, but I did not wake up until 0745,
when my tea was still at least lukewarm. Dad, however, forced me to get up, and before long
we were down at the breakfast table discussing intercoms, and everybody agreed that they
would be useful.

After breakfast, I tried to work out a circuit for an intercom, but had a bit of difficulty
about the methods of signalling, and was not able to work out anything then because Mum
insisted that we did some shopping before Bev went back
to school.

While we were out, I had a talk to Dad, and he is prepared to pay up to £50 for the
assembly, which I think is quite possible, and probable.

We had lunch in a most unattractive part of town, mainly because we could not walk any
further (it was a stinking hot day), and after that went back to the hotel and had a drink
of tea, while I worked on the intercom.

Then, after doing a bit of packing, and myself trying to design a decent oscilloscope, we
went out for a drive, and then took Bev back to school,
where she did not seem at all unhappy, in fact hardly ceasing to talk all the time.

After we left her, we came back, had makan, and then I came up to my room and had another
bash at designing an advanced oscilloscope.

This morning, I stayed awake after tea was brought in, and after taking half an hour or so
to clean out my nose and throat, drank it. Then I got dressed and went down to Mum&Dads
room, whence, after a short wait, we went down to the breakfast table, where Dad gave me his
definition of a kipper - two faced an no guts.

This was generally applied to the English.

After that, I went upstairs gain and packed all my books etc., and then wen down and waited
while Dad packed the rest. After that, we finished off the gold lettering on my satchel.

Finally, we set off, but had to stop
at Ruan Minor, where John Myherhouse
died, and we saw his grave. After that, we went to see his mother, and then the cliff where
he died.

By the time we got back to the main road, it was 1300 hrs, and we did not have lunch until
1345. Then we raced on, and getting
into Devon about 1515, went straight
across Dartmoor, and arrived
in Newton Abbot[sic] at
about 1635, and went to Netherton, checked that my radio gear was all right, and then back
into town for makan, which we had in the Queens hotel bar.

When I got back, I saw Mrs Baudouy, and then polished off the rest of the olives. Upstairs,
Barry had a problem which he thought would stump me.

I woke up fairly early this morning to hear that Paul and Ann Cootes were back, and so got
dressed, and went in to see Paul, who had a Famous Nudes book, but of course, I fell for it
not. Barry, however, fell for it very well, and got a shock.

After breakfast, Mum & Dad came, to do some packing, and all morning long I was carting
stuff up and down the stairs - not only for myself, but also for Ann Cootes, whose trunk was
in the cellars.

Then, after some coffee, which was brought down for us, Dad & I went down to the coach
house and got all the radio stuff from there, and put it in the boxes provided, which were
in turn put in the cellars.

We had lunch with the Baudouys, and after that, we did a little more packing, and then got
going to Taunton, stopping
in Newton to buy some 13A plugs.

All this time, Mum was busy knitting my jumper for me, and won the race against time,
although it was neck&neck.

When I got back to school, I discovered that I had been put in Gatcombe and the senior
common room.

There are a couple of fellows from Kestrels [previous school] here, including
Forward, who is unfortunate enough to have made friends with Brunt.

In breakfast this morning, Großcurth & I had a discussion about the coming year, and
then, after breakfast, I went over to Gatcombe to sort out my component boxes. While I was
there in came Skiv, and told us about the fire drill,
which was immenent.

After the fire drill, I went over to the school and tidied out my scob as best I could,
which was not very best.

Then came assembly, but I was coughing so much that I could not hear much of what
the Weed was saying. However, I need not have worried,
as Skiv repeated it all in the next class, as well as
giving us a few other things.

Then, after break, he was with us again, and this time speaking hardly anything but french.
He caught me out a couple of times, and I hope his opinion of me does not go down too far.

In Maths, Jimmy seemed to be rather busy, and just gave
us some work to do.

In the afternoon, the pioneers were off, and
so Callow, I,
and Green started talking for a while until Dray
I came along, and said that he would join the pioneers next year.

In the evening, latin with Mansell, and it
was rather amusing, especially as we were all expecting the worst. Deutsch was the same as
it always has been, except that we are now in room 27.

First period was french, and once more a few surprises and yet again no written
work. Skiv seems to be a cross
between Boris
and Tyson.

In PE, I was first measured, etc - I have grown ½" since Monday, am now
5'11⅝" [1.82 m], and then did the writing down.

In latin, Jacquet gave us a few notes, and threatened to ask us about them whenever he felt
like it.

In break, buns were unusually sticky, and so I gave one to Großcurth, much to his pleasure.

Maths was a test on factorization - 200%.

Chem, and Clod expressed his belief that I could take
'O' level chem tomorrow and pass.

In the afternoon I was supposed to be pioneering, but I discovered that Matron had left my
jeans in my trunk, and they were at the bottom of my trunk. I went to
see Drax about it, and he kindly let me have the say off
as we had next to nothing to do, so I
found Green, and we went down to the end of the
new building and started talking.

After breakfast this morning, I had to a bit of work for the choir, and then had to turn up
early, as I did not have as much time as I should and spent it talking to Windmill about
what he was supposed to do.

In chapel, little of importance happened - just another Sunday morning service.

After this, I got out my clarinet and headed towards room 26, where Lloyd told me that there
would be no wind band practice.

Once more I started to talk to Windmill, only leaving him for a while to get a piece of cake
from Callow.

Then we got into a discussion about soldering irons, and I brought mine out to show
Windmill, who say that his is somewhere
in Taunton, and he would like to get it
this afternoon.

After lunch, I designed a push-pull O/P stage for the PCR using O/P stage inversion, and
then went to the linen room to get my blazer, where I was trapped. When I got out, Windmill
& I went to get his components etc., which were not as good as I hoped. Then to the
film, Merry Andrew, and could
have been considerably better.

Dobney, picking on me as usual, gave me 40 Lines for bad manners, which was rather a blow to
my no punishment resolution. Read about artificial limbs in the evening.

French was the first period this morning, and we had a test on the prep we had supposed to
have learn, and all did extremely badly, I myself getting 15/30,
and Skiv threatening a detention for anybody under 20/30
in future, but this time only gave us returned work.

In physics, we enjoyed ourselfes drawing pretty pictures with magnets, and had quite a bit of
fun, although Lennox was rather childish about it.

After break, french first, and back
to Maupassant, but we got quite far
again without preparing it. That sort of prep seems to be a waste of time.

Mr Sykes, who takes us for divvers, seems to be quite a character, judging by this period
today.

In after lunch period, I got going on Dobneys 40 lines, and finished the first page.

Corps was a sort of parade to begin with, and I made a complete and utter fool of myself,
which I carried on to do in the second period, which was drill.

In the third period, however, although supplies had failed, we were still shown how to
maintain corps uniform.

English first, and we were more or less at a loose end with the précis on our hands, and so
were about to change the subject when the bell went.

Then latin, but instead of the promised
test, Mansell did
a Clod us, and left us in charge of Mr Gilkes.

In maths we went over last nights prep, and then did some geometry theorems, which were
intended to be learnt for prep.

Chem after break, and, apart from doing what we should have, we were putting various acids
on pennies, and of course, I got Gill to put on
conc HNO₃.

Deutsch, results of Prüfung, and another. Got 18/20, 19/14. [sic]

In the afternoon, finished off Dobney's 40 Lines, and then got going on realigning
the CRT to
the CRO
, with Greens help, and did a few interesting
experiments, including checking the voltage on the N. Line mains.

Went into town with Chaun, returned 3 library books, and bought a PW., but apart from that it was
rather uneventful.

Got a letter from Dad this morning, which was full of information about home.

Double chemistry for the first two periods, and we were expecting to do something good
especially as Clod came in early, but all he did was to
read us out the 'O' level syllabus, which took all our time.

Poop got on to one of his talks on magnetism basically,
and everything in general. Most interesting.

After break, French, and we had rather a stiffer test than last time, got 33/49. Hope he
doesn't consider that detention-worthy.

In maths, we went through geom revision, and did no written work again.

Wind band practice (rest time) clashed
with Russian after lunch, but I
did Russian.

During games time, I had a conversation with Jacob, and it develops that, under exceptional
conditions, people can join the the wireless club without previlige, but only under
exceptional ones.

“School privilege” was a recognition of a certain level of maturity, and allowed
certain actions, in particular wearing the school tie (unprivileged boys wore a black
tie). It was normally conferred after between 4 and 6 terms, but I was an all-time record.

Latin in the evening, but we did not do at all well,
and Mansell came out with all sorts of
threats of detentions, etc.,

Today was my birthday, but you would not have known it - not a single letter in the morning,
and nobody remembered.

Latin first, and Mansell made us go on with
the Cicero, which only served in giving us
more words to learn for prep.

French, and we got our books back, and Skiv said that
Rossiters handwriting was the worst he had ever seen - did not comment on mine, though.

Physics, room 18, and Poop went on to a more complicated
theory of mangetism, which nobody understood.

Double music after break - just the usual, and on a mono gram, too.

In the afternoon, I decided to turn up for pioneers, and,
as Callow said, it was very slack, and all we had
to do was to move a few bricks. However, Callow
told me later that it was not half so slack as usual. However, I think
that Drax is a very interesting personality.

After that, Callow produced a caked, which, apart
from Mums telegram, was the only recognition of my birthday that I had. Then dancing -
learnt waltz
and quickstep, but there must be more
to it than that.

Music club in evening, but could not play recorder music as it was stereo...

Once more, Sunday, and little to do, so I went along to the library to have a look at the
Penguin Russian course, as Tyson suggested. It is
quite interesting, and I might buy it.

No more wind band after chapel, so I went back to the common room and had a look at Walkers
radio, which has been playing up on him, but before long people started fiddling round with
the oscilloscope, and so I connected
up the loudspeaker to the scope, and let people have some thrills. After that, we watched
the BBC light programme,
which was also very interesting. Later, Windmill showed me a very queer design for a 3
valve reciever.

After lunch, tried to tidy up my scob, but Stanley ii, wanting to build an oscilloscope, did
not help.

Then for a walk with Windmill. Barret is building an oscilloscope with sensitivity of
10μV/cm up to 30 Mc/s - for £10!!

Windmill & I are thinking of trying to build a simple oscilloscope unit.

After roll call connected up my headphones to the scope. Much higher O/P than the speaker.

After dinner, Chivers, Wadland, Forward, Cox, I
in room 26 to try F, C out
on recorder.
Forward O/K, but don't know about Cox.

French first this morning, and I got another chance to finish the french prep of Saturday.
This took up the whole time.

Double physics was an experiment to find the power of a magnet by equalising with the earths
surface, but there were no really suitable magnets, and we ended up with a tiny little thing
with a strength of only 2.43 gauss.

After break, french, and we carried on
with La Parure. It is, at least,
becoming interesting, and part of our prep is to finish it.

Did not do much in divvers, as I had to go for a flute lesson soon after the start. The new
flute teacher made me change the way I do everything that I do with the flute, and then
wonders why I can't play.

Corps in the afternoon - Map reading first, but was a farce. Drill was absolutely
hilarious, I making all possible mistakes.

After tea, weapon training. I am sure the Corps instructors think I am an absolute idiot.

In second Prep, the Russian audio visual course. I do not think it all that hot,
but Tyson says we will get used to it.